Telling The Real Stories

February 08, 2018

The following opinion piece was submitted by Kathy Uradnik, Professor of Political Science at St. Cloud State University. There were no winners in last week’s controversy over the display of political messages by the SCSU College Republicans, but there were plenty of losers. They included our student body, which once again witnessed what has become all too common on college campuses: that the constitutional rights of some can be canceled by the objections of others. Whatever one thought about the College Republicans’ display in the Atwood Student Center, there is no dispute as to its constitutionality: it was protected free speech. America has a deep and abiding commitment to freedom of speech; it is a core right. The first amendment protects many forms of speech, but reserves its highest protection for political speech. If a nation is to be based on diversity and the diverse viewpoints that come with it, speech…